Graphic Arts for Gifted Kids

by Carol Fertig

Graphic arts encompasses the art of representation, decoration, and writing or printing on flat surfaces. Common uses include identity (logos and branding), websites, publications (magazines, newspapers, and books), advertisements, and product packaging. Graphic arts is a field of interest for many gifted young people. If nurtured, it might develop into a career option. Here are some websites that may be helpful for your students.

• Celebrating Creativity: Interview with Graphic Designer Michael Schwab—Want to know what it is like to have a career as a graphic artist? Find out in this interview with graphic designer Michael Schwab, whose designs are known nationwide for their bold colors and simple images. Schwab has created award-winning logos and posters for many clients, including Apple, Comedy Central, Levi’s, Major League Baseball, Nike, Warner Brothers, and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. In this interview, he discusses graphic design and what it takes to be a graphic designer
• Design Dossier: Graphic Design for Kids—This is a book that acts as a mini-class on all of the aspects of graphic design, including profiles of graphic designers, each answering a few key questions about the art and craft. There are also pull-outs, diecuts, and other special effects that allow young students a chance to interact with the material. 
• Kids Can Learn Graphic Designing, Too!—Here you will find graphic design project ideas to encourage the younger set.

 This blog post initially appeared on the Gifted Child Info Blog on July 22, 2011.

Engaging Gifted Students in Inner City Schools

Chicago teachers went on strike today, leaving about 350,000 students without classes to attend at the start of the 2012–13 school year. It is the first such strike to occur in the city in 25 years. Sadly, regardless of the outcome, there is already a clear loser in the conflict: the students, including those who are gifted.

Even in the best of circumstances, many gifted students in the country’s urban areas are at risk for being underserved. As Jay Mathews with the Washington Post noted back in March: “Gifted classes are most common in affluent suburbs with many academically oriented families . . . Gifted education receives little notice in low-income urban school districts because it often doesn’t exist there.” Meanwhile, families in urban areas often compete to get their students into the best possible (often private) schools, a hassle that can be incredibly taxing. And with the economy still struggling, more and more parents are turning to cheaper public school alternatives—a situation that could leave students who don’t get into their desired schools especially frustrated. The Montgomery County Public School system (part of the DC metropolitan area), for example, reported in 2010 that only one third of the second-grade students recommended for above-level reading were receiving advanced instruction the following year.

Fortunately, there are options. As public schools slash gifted education programs, gifted charter schools continue to pop up, which may lessen the tooth-and-nail competition in certain communities. And all eyes are on Washington, DC’s new BASIS charter school, which presents what some consider to be the most challenging academic program the city has ever seen. Meanwhile, students in Chicago can make use of programs being offered by organizations like Young Chicago Authors, so they can stay engaged even while their schools' doors remain closed.

eBooks from Prufrock Press and Copy Protection

by Joel McIntosh, Publisher

eBooks from Prufrock Press use a form of copy protection. For this reason, in order read and print the eBooks you buy from our web site, you need to install the free Adobe Digital Editions application on your computer. This is the same software used by Google Books, Kobo Books, Books-A-Million, BooksOnBoard, and many others, and it is the closest thing publishers have to an industry standard. With this software, you can read and print the books you buy from Prufrock on up to six devices. With a little extra work, you can even read the books on your Barnes and Noble nook or your Apple iPad.

Personally, I don't like copy protection on eBooks. I think it adds a level of complexity to what should be a simple experience. Given that we protect our books with Adobe's software, that might seem like a contradiction. I suppose it is. However, let me offer a bit of perspective on why we use Adobe's software to protect our books from illegal distribution. Two years ago, we acquired a wonderful publishing house called Cottonwood Press. Prior to the acquisition, Cottonwood sold its books in both print format and as unprotected PDFs. The result? Take a look at this email from a teacher that I received shortly after the acquisition.

Hi, I am a 7th grade English teacher, and I love using the materials you’ve acquired from Cottonwood Press. However, it has come to my attention that at least one of these books, "Games for English and Language Arts" by Charlene Hunter, has been uploaded to the Scribd website and is now available for download. Here is a link: [redacted]. This means that my students have access to the answer key!

Hopefully, you will be able to resolve this copyright issue with the website quickly. Thanks, Katie

We dug into this problem a bit and found that a simple Google search for some of Cottonwood's titles showed that many were available from download sites like Scribd. We got busy and started sending copyright violation "take-down" notices to these sites. After several months, we finally managed to get all of the illegal copies taken down, but it required lots of time and effort. It still does–we continue to monitor these sites.

We didn't want a repeat of this experience with our other titles, so we adopted Adobe Digital Editions as our copy protection system. Even though it presented a level of complication for my customers (you need to install Adobe Digital Editions on your computer), I finally "bit the bullet" and protected our eBooks with Adobe's software. To my way of thinking, this was similar to the need for me to establish rules in my classroom when I was a teacher. Most of the kids I taught did not need rules spelled out. They were well behaved and eager to learn. However, a small few in every class were not so well meaning. The rules were really designed to help with those few kids, but the rules had to apply to everyone. Unfortunately, this is similar to the problem I'm facing with people who don't respect our author's copyright.

Adobe Digital Editions offers a reasonably simple, industry-standard way that we can sell our eBooks and protect our authors copyrights. Most customers never have a problem using Adobe Digital Editions, but we are always available to help if you need some extra technical assistance. Call us at 800-998-2208 during business hours or e-mail us at any time.

Take a Moment to "Like" The Association for the Gifted (TAG) on Facebook

If you support gifted education and use Facebook, please take a moment to "like" our friends at The Association for the Gifted (TAG) on Facebook. This hardworking, non-profit group is a fantastic source of gifted education news, information, and advocacy.

A division of the Council for Exceptional Children, TAG is small but incredibly active and passionate about supporting gifted children, their parents, and teachers. Please take a moment to like them on Facebook. They are good folks doing very good work.

Back To Nature: Outdoor Play May Help Children With ADHD

As common sense tells us and research confirms, all children can benefit from dropping their electronics and playing outside more often. But a number of studies have focused on the effects of Mother Nature on a particular group of children—those with ADHD. The results are not necessarily surprising. Just as time spent in a natural setting can calm and balance those without attention deficit disorders, unstructured play time in “green” environments has been shown to ease the symptoms of ADHD.

Of course, getting your child with ADHD to see the backyard as a better source of entertainment than the television might be easier said than done. Check out these resources to help you start instilling your child with appreciation for the great outdoors! 

• The National Wildlife Federation has a Parents’ Guide with tips for engaging your child outside, as well as plenty of ideas for fun outdoor excursions.
• The National Audubon Society provides tips and activities for making nature a part of family time.
• The World Forum Foundation offers Toolkits for Families and Toolkits for Educators with activities for children ages 3–8. Their Resources page can help you get involved or simply learn more about the movement to reconnect children with nature.
• And of course, a family vacation to a national park is a great way to awaken your child to the wonders of nature and create a lasting memory. Though national parks are often seen as summer destinations, you can actually plan your vacation for any season of the year.